Cloud computing column Jungle Disk cloud storage

While it is only a year or so for many domestic readers to touch the cloud, cloud computing or cloud computing applications abroad are just as bamboo as the rain. "He is the stone of the mountain, can attack Jade." "The IT168 server channel has launched a cloud-computing column to help more companies recognize and understand cloud computing, especially the emerging business value of cloud computing." We will introduce some emerging cloud computing products, services and companies at home and abroad. If your company also provides cloud computing services, or is using cloud computing, or you have a view of cloud computing, please contact us: mengqing@it168.com

Introduction: Jungle Disk Cloud Storage http://www.jungledisk.com

Jungle Disk Company was founded in 2007 in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. It is based on Amazon S3 Cloud computing resources, through a friendly software interface, to provide users with online storage and backup services.

Unlike other vendors, jungle disk does not have a mass storage device. Instead, it uses mature, large-scale, online storage systems, such as Amazon's S3 (Simple storage services, Simplicity Storage service), to achieve cloud storage of customer data.

As a feature, jungle disk provides the user with a software. It creates a network hard disk in the system (connected to the online storage space). Users can copy, paste, delete, create a new folder, and so on, as if they were working on a local hard drive. It also has an automatic backup feature that is not on the local hard drive.

Here are seven main features of jungle disk:

1, download jungle Disk software

Software downloaded from the official website of jungle disk can be used for 30 days free of charge to users. After that, users will have to pay 20 of dollars to buy the right to use the software. However, the software only needs to be purchased once, you can also enjoy lifelong free upgrade services.

2. Apply for an account of Amazon S3

Jungle Disk uses the Amazon S3 (Simple storage service, Simplicity Storage services) as the background for its cloud storage. In other words, the user's data is stored by the industry's top online store, Amazon, and jungle disk provides a user-friendly management interface to communicate with Amazon cloud storage databases and individual users. Therefore, users need to apply for an Amazon S3 account, only to enjoy the convenience of jungle disk.

When the user completes the above two parts of operation, can use jungle disk normally.

Here are two examples showing the drag-and-paste and automatic backup of jungle disk.

As shown in the figure, users can use jungle disk as if they were on a local hard drive

From the above we can learn that in jungle disk, simply click to select the files and folders that need to be backed up. Also, users are free to choose when to run a backup operation.

With the Amazon S3 Cloud storage architecture. Then the user naturally has to pay a certain rental fee to Amazon. The approximate price is shown in the following table:

storage space for each GB of data rental price is 0.15 USD per month data transfer (traffic) per upload 1GB data 0.10 USD

$0.17 per download 1GB data

1 cents per 1000 upload fee, 1 cents per 10,000 downloads

For detailed billing, see: HTTP://WWW.AMAZON.COM/S3

As can be seen from the table above, Amazon's services do not have a minimum monthly fee. How much space users use, how much traffic, pay the corresponding rent. This is one of the reasons why jungle Disk chose Amazon as its cloud storage partner.

Jungle Disk software is sold separately from Amazon S3 service. That is, users buy jungle disk software separately, and then combine them with their Amazon S3 service. So jungle disk looks like a software company, not a network service provider.

According to Jungle Disk's official statement, "One purchase, life-long free upgrade." And this technical support is cross-platform, whether the user is in Windows,mac or Linux can enjoy. Most important, after a user has purchased one, you can install the software on multiple computers. Its flexible application provides users with an excellent experience.

Buying jungle disk requires 20 dollars, but users can enjoy a 30-day free trial before that. And if the user is willing to spend more than 1 dollars a month, you can get jungle Disk enhanced version of value-added services. For example, the enhanced version allows users to invoke files stored in Amazon on a Web page, and allows the software to automatically contrast the differences between online folders and local files, and then intelligently upload the difference between the parts and so on.

Because of the unique operation of jungle disk, they do not need to buy thousands of servers and terabytes of disk space, the corresponding maintenance staff will be reduced. Accordingly, they will focus primarily on how to give the user the best possible software and technical support. From the service features of jungle disk, it is more suitable for three kinds of users:

1 Users who need to back up critical data frequently.

Jungle disk with its open software design, and based on cloud storage service system, designed a powerful automatic backup system. This allows users to even apply Third-party backup tools, such as Chronosync, Syncback, or rsync, to manage backup data. and jungle disk for the user's operation provides a cache, greatly reducing the user's operation and upload time, to achieve the same as the local hard disk real-time operation (depending on the network situation depends).

2 users who need a secure data environment.

As a major feature, jungle disk's cloud storage architecture is Amazon's S3 service, providing convenience to another group of users who need a secure data environment. Users do not have to worry about the data they store on the server side. Amazon's AWS Key is encrypted in the process of user data transfer, using jungle disk, the official saying: we don't even know how large the file the user is sending.

However, there are also users who disagree that jungle disk does not have its own storage architecture, but is pinned on Amazon's system, which is tantamount to putting all the eggs in one basket. It is doubtful whether the risks posed by this approach will be higher than their reliability. Especially recently, Amazon S3 has had a more worrying impact after the incident.

3 Users who are more sensitive to storing backup prices.

Jungle Disk's low price strategy will also attract a group of users. After 30 days of free trial, the user will be "on-demand" network storage applications, unrestricted file type, size of the freedom, as well as cross-platform applications impressed. With only one payment, users can enjoy a free upgrade service for life. This convenience and discount will easily dispel users ' doubts about the 20 dollar price of the software.

This part refers to small and medium-sized enterprises with relatively small amount of data. Because these small and medium-sized enterprises take stakes in one-off investments to buy huge databases, the cost is difficult to accept. And if large companies hire jungle Disk, the rents they pay may be higher than the cost of building large data centers in a few years.

Visible, jungle disk as a new era of cloud computing service providers, its user groups and business model still need to go through the test of time. However, jungle disk on its homepage asked: "At the" the "the", who can and your data? Who do you trust to store your data when the system crashes (when the world comes to an end)? "This confidence gives us a glimpse of the strong confidence and broad prospects of cloud storage.